Atlanta Rhythm Section
A Rock and Roll Alternative

The year 1976 was a busy one for our gods of a minor Olympus. The Georgian Rhythm Section managed to quickly craft a follow-up to their previous work “Red Tape” within the same year, and the move proved to be successful, as this sixth career effort turned into their first truly significant success.

The lyricism of the introductory track “Sky High” is unmatched and authentically reaches the “sky high” of their talent: there is a piano intro, but the piece quickly gains substance thanks to the biting guitars and emerges as a compelling anthem, kept in constant tension by all minor chords and the heartfelt voice of the excellent Ronnie Hammond. But above everything and everyone, even more so this time than others, reigns Barry Bailey’s frenzied solo guitar, here not just inspired... but beyond! Like Leopardi with “L'Infinito,” like Vermeer with “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” like De André with “La Guerra di Piero.”

The climax occurs in the final tail: the Gibson superbly continues to phrase, accompanied only by the piano before the rhythm returns to emphasize the passages and weave the epic conclusion of the track. A delight... and it's not even the best version of the song published, as the one that opens their 1979 live album “Are You Ready” is three times better if possible, with the expansive reverbs of the large stadium where they are performing, the screams, and applause of tens of thousands of attendees adding pathos and depth.

But the single extracted from the album, and a great success, is another titled “So Into You.” It is a pleasant mid-tempo funky blues where the electric piano leads the way and the guitars adorn it. This track, too, is worth more when heard in concert version... among other things, the production fades the piece just as Bailey was starting to heat up, as demonstrated by the live version from ’79, again much more compelling and engaging than the original present here.

One last mention for the final track “Neon Nites”: as nocturnal as the title suggests, it is boogie blues in the verse but transforms into country in the chorus. The executive class permeates this episode as well, managing to save it from any mediocrity and allowing us to grasp the strong point of this formation: balance and “feeling,” that rare art of knowing how to extract from one’s instruments the notes that are needed, and not one more, for the team effort.

The last four-star album, lowered by a hair compared to the maximum, before the sequence of five-star albums that will follow.